"Don't get too excited. You're staying with me the next weekend too. And of course everyday after that because your parents will be leaving," Ian says.
It's currently Sunday and I'm being dropped off back at my house. When he says everyday after that he really means as long as its his request for me to be with him that day...I'm going to be with him that day. If it's not I spend the day at my house. Sadly, I don't think he's going to get over beating someone like me so quickly.
"I know." is all I reply.
I open the door and start walking up the driveway to ring the bell. My family answers it on the fourth ring.
"Ahh, I see you spent your time with Ian. I expect you to have come back fresh and good," my dad says. I nod. I walk past them and head up the stairs.
"Are you alright, Beatrice?" my mother asks.
"Don't worry about it, mom." I yell still continuing my trek to my room.
I'm so lost in my world putting my bag away and being happy that I'm back under my own roof that I didn't notice the pair of feet to follow me upstairs, into my room. My mother stands in front of me and puts her hands on my shoulders.
"Sit down, please." I follow her to my bed and we sit down, her arm around my shoulders and my head resting on her shoulder.
"What's been going on between us?" I stare at her shocked that she could ask something like that.
"What do you mean?" I ask warily.
"We barely hang out—" I cut her off.
"You and dad have been spending so much time worrying about Caleb...I'm surprised you even remember me. Don't think I don't remember that conversation you guys had a couple nights back. I heard you guys saying how you wish I'd come out like Caleb. But you know what? I'm not Caleb and I will never be Caleb. Caleb is Caleb. I'm Tris." I get up from the bed and start pacing.
"Look, Beatrice—"
"It's Tris," I snap.
"Okay. Tris, I know what we did was wrong but—"
"No. Just stop. Please," I stop pacing and pick out my pajamas and start heading towards the bathroom in the hall. Before I can turn the doorknob to exit my room my mother stops me.
"What can I do to make it up to you?" she asks looking directly in my eyes.
This moment where my mother's green eyes and my blue-gray eyes meet and she's begging me for a chance to make it up to me suddenly gets me weak to my knees. I've missed my mommy.
"How do I know you're serious?" I can't help but be wary. Being independent the majority of your life is bound to make you careful.
"Try me," she states.
"Look, Tris. I understand you won't be willing to open up just yet but...I do hope one day you will. I may not have your father's exact support but this is my decision and I want us to be closer. I don't mind dealing with baby steps I just need my little girl back." She squeezes my shoulders when she says this.
Shocker. My dad doesn't give a fuck about me.
"Your 'little girl' died the day my parents did."
She purses her lips at that, "Well then I want to meet this Bea—Tris. I want to meet Tris." I smile at her and she smiles back.
I have only caught sincerity in her voice.
"I think we can arrange something," I say and then open the door and make my way to the bathroom to shower.
I make my way to school and start picking my books from my locker. My friends all surround me and we are all talking unit I hear a "Tris!". I look towards the voice that just yelled my name and am surprised to see Four. I also can't help but feel a little satisfied. He makes his way to me.
"Uh..hey Tris," he stutters looking at the ground. He keeps his head tilted towards the ground but still looks up at me through his long eyelashes.
"What the hell do you want Four?" I ask bored. He looks taken aback.
"I was just wondering if I could talk to you," he says hopefully.
"Nothing to talk about, fucktard," I state closing my locker.
He properly looks at me. He squares his shoulders, crosses his arms, and flexes his jaw.
"Alright. I see," he starts getting away and I can't help but watch him while biting my lip.
I'm torn between going after him and staying here.
"What was that about?" Al asks.
I look at all of them and see knowing smirks or smiles on their faces...well, all except Al. Al has his jaw clenched and eyes bloodshot.
"I actually have no idea," I lie making sure to not bite my cheek.
"Alright. I see," Will says trying not to smile. I scoff.
"Can we just forget about it? Oh. I have an idea. I was wondering if we could all pull a prank on them," I say hopefully.
"Are you sure it won't haunt you 'Four'ever? Or in other words, your boyfriend won't get mad?" Uriah smirks.
"Please?" I beg.
"Fine," Will says.
Everyone nods their heads at me so he continues, "What do you have in mind?"
I start settling into my seat in math when Four and his buddies who have this class walk in. Zeke has his arm around Shauna's waist. I wonder what it would feel like to have a strong arm wrapped around my waist. My eyes then take in Four as he enters the classroom.
"Four, please...," Nita begs.
I wonder why.
"We never even had a relationship, Nita," Four states.
"So then what was all that pleasure considered?" Nita asks running a finger down his chest.
She leans in to...to do what I have no idea, but he stops her from doing it.
"Pleasure. That's all it was," he replies.
He goes to sit down in his seat and Nita tries to sit in his lap. He guides her waist away from him and she keeps trying to get close to him. He sighs.
"Nita, how about we compromise?"
"How about you just relax and I help you with that?" She tries to sit in his lap again but he just won't allow it.
"No. You can sit next to me but no touching," he says with finality in his voice.
"But babe...," Nita whines.
He gives her a look to silence her and it works. Then Mr. Asshole decides to show up. He seems to have perfect timing...almost too perfect.
Nita is still standing up.
"Sweetheart, wouldn't you rather sit?" he gestures towards a chair.
"But daddy, there aren't any empty chairs. Maybe I could sit in Four's lap." She looks at him innocently.
"I'm sure he wouldn't mind, now would you Four?" he asks.
One: there are plenty of chairs around. Two: isn't this guy supposed to be a teacher? I do not think encouraging that kind of behavior in school is appropriate for his occupation.
He glares at the teacher so hard I'm thinking that whoever came up with the expression: "If looks could kill..." obviously didn't meet Four. Four probably could kill him with it.
"Actually sir, I prefer to not be sat on," Four seethes.
When I hear that I let out a small snort. It's kinda like the one that happens when someone wants to laugh but stops immediately because the situation is inappropriate for it. Everybody turns to look at me and my cheeks start to blush. I can't help the laugh I'm stifling. It was bound to come out. I start laughing while the whole class is staring at me amused. They soon start to join in on the laughter. I look at Four and see he's watching me as if I'm the most precious thing in the world...or at least I think. It really could've been my imagination because his face turns hard just a second later.
"Okay, okay. Simmer down," he waves his hands to get us to stop laughing but it doesn't seem to be working.
"If you don't shut up you will all receive detentions." Now everybody stops laughing. His expression then turns loving.
"Nita sit down please."
She tries to sit in Four's lap but he pushes her away again. She huffs and sits down in the chair next to his. She scoots her chair way too close to his for my liking and he sighs but does nothing. Maybe he realized that having them in seperate chairs was the best he could get. They still aren't touching though. Throughout the rest of class Nita tries to reach out and touch him when he's not paying much attention but he always catches her wrist and places it away from him before she can lay a hand on him.
I decide to not tell my friends the story of what went down in math. They'd probably start teasing me about it.
"Wazzup?" I ask, setting my tray down on the table.
"The sky," Will smirks.
Classic him, being all logical. But there definitely was a hint of Uri in there. All the playfulness. I roll my eyes.
"Meh meh," I say in his face. This just causes his smirk to grow. I pull back and sit down.
"About that prank...when are you planning on doing it?" he asks.
I ponder it for a minute, "depends. When can you get the stuff? And it's more like a chain of pranks."
Uri raises his hand. "Right. No need to worry about that. I already have all that stuff. I have everything. I'm the guy who can get you what you need when you need it, in case you forgot."
"Hey, about your party this week," Christina says whilst rolling her eyes. Wait, isn't the trip this week?
"Who's going to be there? When is it? What'll go on?"
Now it's my turn to roll my eyes. I mean, it's a Pedrad party. I may not be a party girl but everybody knows about those.
"Ya. Zeke says it's on Saturday," Uri tells her.
"What? Why? What's wrong with Friday?" she tries to interrogate. We have the ritual...
"He and Four were discussing it and decided that Saturday is best," Uri states.
Christina huffs in annoyance. She seems unsatisfied with this answer. I can't help but feel a little relieved at that. Friday I have a field trip so Ian has to let me go and Saturday he won't be on my case much...not really, but kind of. I'll probably deal with shit Satuday too but I'm pretty sure I can figure out a way to have Christina come over to get me dolled up. I know that no matter what I'll end up going so there really isn't much point in arguing.
"So what should we do Friday?" Christina asks.
"Why don't we just keep to ourselves that day? Everybody enjoys peace and quiet once in a while, right?" I state which causes her to groan.
Right then, the bell rings, signaling lunch is over.
"I'll see you guys later," I say whilst grabbing my tray and standing up from the table.
They all murmur some form of "yes".
I do not get the purpose of saying "see you later" when we're all attending the same class next.
Anyway, I walk in and take a seat, waiting for all of the students to arrive.
Once everyone has walked in and been seated, Tori starts class.
"I don't know if I mentioned this, but the assignment is due next Wednesday," Tori states.
I wonder why the date has been changed to next Wednesday. Does it have anything to do with the trip? And what about Matthews? Maybe I should try and meet up with him. Four may not care about getting a good grade for this, but I do. I guess I can ask Caleb to help me meet up with him.
"Go ahead and discuss," she says. Too bad I'm trying to avoid Four at all costs. And he obviously isn't too happy about me likewise.
"Hey, how come you and Four aren't discussing? You never are," Christina states, trying to get a good look at him. I grab her arm.
"Stop that. He might think something...and I don't need any more of that bastard. Hell I can't even stand him when our exchange is considered necessary. And we don't discuss it often because we have an awesome sauce director who said he has everything all under control and that we need to trust him. But to be honest, all we did was shoot one scene and we have a whole video to complete," I hiss the beginning but finish more nicely.
Our whole entire group has abandoned their conversations to listen to mine.
Uri opens his mouth, probably to comfort me, but a voice interrupts him.
"I think if he said we need to trust him, we need to trust him," Four says staring down at me with his arms crossed. "Especially you, pipsqueak."
"I wasn't talking to you," I growl, showing my teeth.
He rolls his eyes and mutters something under his breath. I feel an odd urge to try to console him, but that's probably just the wacko part of me.
After Four and I's exchange, we all remain quiet. There really is nothing more to say. I do know that I need to figure out what is happening to me. I intend to.
I walk around campus, waiting for the school day to come to an end. I want to talk to Caleb, he can help me with Matthews. I text him to meet me here at the fountain the second his class finishes.
Finally, it becomes dismissal and a few seconds later I see him rushing toward me.
"I got your text. What is it?" he asks.
"You know Matthews, right?" I pause and he nods his head. Then, I continue, "well, I need to speak with him. We have a project together."
"Is this about Ms. Wu's class? He said to trust him and not worry about it...so don't."
"You can call her Tori, you know. And I want a good grade so can you please just let me see him?" I start getting frustrated.
"Trust him, alright? And this is coming from your smartass older brother," he says, soothing me. He has his hands on my shoulders, silently urging me to calm down and let it go.
"Fine." Our eye contact doesn't waver and he lets go of my shoulders hesitatingly.
I guess I'll have to find another way to get to Matthews...
As I'm getting ready to go to bed I hear a knock on the door.
"Tris? Can I come in?" she hollers through the door. I finish putting my pajamas on and get under the covers, so she can't see me.
"You can come in now," I yell.
She enters the door and sits on the corner of my bed. She puts her hand on my knee, which is covered thanks to the blankets.
"I was wondering, do you want to do something Saturday?" she asks lovingly.
I'm still not falling headfirst into this, in case it's a trap. I don't mind going slow though.
I shake my head, "I have something Saturday." I bite my lip, contemplating whether I said too much.
"Ahh. That's alright. Well, if you ever want to do something, let me know," she says understandingly.
Hmm. I wonder how many parties my mother would go to. Anyway, I still nod my head at her words.
"Goodnight," she mutters, kissing me on the forehead. I, again, can only nod my head at her words.
She leaves my room while closing the door behind her. I start squirming around, trying to get comfortable. Finally, I settle on my usual curled-up position.
The unusual thing about this time:
I'm curled up in a masculine scent, that also has some sweat in the mix.
I inhale it. It soothes me. I still have to figure out what it all means, but I'm fairly sure I'm getting there.
I'm curled up in Four's sweatshirt.
chicisme10:
Thank you for letting me know! Honestly, I didn't see it as bitchy. And you're right, lots of people do that. That's kinda why I get confused. I see so many stories organized like that and some that aren't, which really confuses me on how to organize my story. So thank you for clarifying how I should organize it because I really was confused. And if this sounds sappy I really didn't intend for it to be; I sincerely was confused on how to organize my story.